Forum:The Borg: Contradictions?
Greetings: Being a fan of Star Trek (well, not so the Captain James Tiberius Kirk series, aka original series) but the latter TNG series BIG fan of TNG, a lot less of Voy), I watched every episode, few times. This leads me to a few questions regarding the Borg. We learn of their existence in Q-WHO, where the Enterprise encounters these Borg for the first time. Not even a minute in, I became a big fan of the Borg. But, this came with a few annoyances: over the course of the series, I came in contact with contradictions, re-written canon and ideologies, and questions in general: 1) a)Borg Queen(s): Seemingly there are quite a few of these bizarre individuals within the Borg whole. As I think to understand the origins of the Borg: They were once simple biological humanoids, that sought to improve themselves with technology. Not just physical, but also intellectual, adding more brainpower to themselves. They created an AI to make their life easier, but this AI began to revolt, turning their creators into its new slaves: The Borg. The Borg enhance themself (as their goal is to reach perfection, and in doing so improve the lesser, but interesting species as well) through the all-known process of assimilation. The Borg originated as a species, that, like the Vulcans (or so, they pretend to have), eradicated emotion entirely, since emotion is a serious problem and an absolute evil to begin with. The AI understood, that no issue, no war, did NOT derive from emotion, being it greed, hatred such as racism and the lot, or vengeange, and thus eradicated emotion all together (though it was stored somewhere, highly encrypted and well hidden). This AI also figured out, that individualism was a bad thing, since this lead to conflict of ideas and opinions: this got solved by eradicating this individualism, turning it's subjects into a single 'being': the collective. Having created a semi-utopian society, where former species now bunked with their arch enemies, living in peace, side by side, and in the process removing crime effectively, such as theft or murder. Quite perfect, right? But then, we learn of... the Queen... An 'individual being????' in a hive where individualism is (forcefully) rejected, and which is obviously emotional driven in this emotion-deprived society, on top of all things. What have I missed here, what does this error of Borg Evolution do here, and being in charge no less? This Queen conflicts in any form with the Borg Base Model we grew to be known with. 1) b) Queens?: Not only one Queen exists, apparently, but multiple. Each having their own individuality end emotional backpack, seem to be alive on the most important ships. Are these being controlled by an even higher placed something? An Emperor, maybe? Or, the AI of which the Borg rose from? And, since they are all individuals, to these conflict with other queens, or...? 2) a) Assimilation vs destruction: We learned that the Borg's main goal is to achieve perfection. They assimilate interesting species, in their whole, adding their technological and biological distinctiveness to their own, and thus improve themselves this way, reaching a minor step closer to perfection. But this comes with a logics flaw: by assimilating the entire species, they rob themselves of further evolution towards perfection: Since no member of species X is left, they cannot evolve, invent new technology, ..., thus, in fact, depriving themselves of evolution... How could an intellectual being make such a mistake? 2) b) Wolf 359: destruction of the fleet: Another thing I got severely annoyed with, as it does not follow the Borg logic: Why kill the fleet... if they could assimilate that fleet? There were 39 vessels. 1 cube, holding up to 130.000 drones, with the capacity to beam up to 5000 drones at once... A handful drones can overtake a ship, with virtual ease. Let's say the cube would send, to make sure of it's success, 500 drones to each enemy ship... 39x500=17.500 dromes, leaving MORE than enough drones to operate the cube, and in doing so, would gain 39 Borgified vessels, and an entire army of drones, ensuring their success. No? Thus, why destroy the fleet??? 2) c) Earth is a vital target: But then why send 1 cube? If Earth was that vital, why not send a fleet of 5000 cubes? Even better: each cube can warp into the past, why not send 5000 cubes into the past? Star Trek is littered with inconsistencies, illogical happenings, and flat out contradictions. In virtually every serie, they manage to make a mess of canon, sometimes with serious consequences. If the creators were serious with the Borg, then by no means, Alpha Quadrant would have stand not even a slightest of chance. Now, we cannot have that, can we? I mean, the human species is superior to all... And Americans even MUCH 'superiorer' amongst humans, ainnit? But, still, what with all the nonsense about the Borg? It is frustrating to think all this over... Anyone a clue, maybe?